The tying of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst. The children beg for food, but no one gives it to them.
– Lamentations 4:4
This is such a sad verse. Understandably so. In such a sad book of the Bible, this lament over the effects and the suffering that come from sin in this world.
Lamentations 4:4 talks about the effects of sin on children.
But the reason I want to read this verse in particular and lead us to pray according to it is because of its emphasis on children and the effects of sin in adults on the lives of children, the effects of war, specifically even on children. The whole picture here in Lamentations is these children suffering, longing for food but not being able to eat because of the catastrophic effects of sin around them. And I read it and I just can’t help but to think about the effects of sin and suffering, and specifically even war in the world today.
When I think about different places in the world where there is war and so many children are suffering as a result, and yet we don’t even have to look at other places in the world. I think about our church family this last Sunday. We talked about a foster care crisis in Metro DC right now and the number of kids in need who don’t have a home to go to.
And it was such a powerful time as the church just said, okay, we’re going to take responsibility for this. And I would ask you to pray for our follow-up to that in the days to come, and for all of our churches that we would care for children in need right around us, specifically even through the foster care system with the number of churches in most of our communities, there should be no children in need of a home.
Lamentations 4:4 is a calling to show mercy to suffering children.
So I want to lead us to praise specifically for children right now who are experiencing in different ways the effects of sin and the suffering that sin brings of God. We pray for your mercy over children in need, right around us and all around the world, specifically children who are suffering as a result of others’, sin, as a result of sin, and those you’ve given to protect children, which includes all of us. God, we pray for your mercy. We know that you are Father to the fatherless. We pray for your mercy to be made known among children in need of families, children who do not for any number of reasons, have parents and family and homes surrounding them right now. God, we pray for children who are suffering in the middle of war and in different places in the world. God have mercy on them.
We pray and help us as your people to be a reflection of your love, of your care for them. You tell us in Isaiah chapter one, to bring justice to the fatherless, that worship, that ignores the fatherless around us is not true Worship the true religion, James 1 27, is to look after children in need of family. So God, we pray you to help us to do that and help us to work on behalf of children in a variety of different circumstances who are experiencing the effects of sin around them.
And God, we pray that you’d help us to be holy and righteous in ways that we pass on righteousness to the next generation. God, please help us not to sin in any way that brings harm to well anyone around us, including children.
Prayer for the Moor People
And God, we pray specifically today for the Moor people of Mauritania. God, for 4 million Muslim men, women, and children who’ve never heard the good news of your grace and your love in Jesus.
Lord, we pray that the Moor people of Mauritania would be reached with the gospel, you would bless the few believers among them, those from other people, groups, or missionaries who are working among them. God, we pray for the spread of your love to the Moor people of Mauritania that they would be brought into your family through Jesus. And God, we pray that you would help us as your people, as your adopted sons and daughters to care well to reflect your character well. In a world where children experience so much suffering as a result of sin, God help us to reflect your love for them. We pray all this according to your Word in Lamentations 4:4. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
